Category: Misc.

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Hello!

This post is not in any way related to food. However, I felt inclined to share some photos from a couple foggy weekends ago when I ventured up to the mountains with my two friends Lilla and Kai in pursuit of reaching a vantage point above the clouds.

It started out as a boring day with gloomy, grey skies above us. Because of our unusual amounts of energy we decided to make the treck up Gibraltar road. On the way up I stuck my head out the window as I stared up at the clouds which would soon become blue sky and enjoyed the soft drizzles of rain falling on my face. After about an hour of driving in the thick fog to the highest water tower reachable (shout out to Lilla’s hybrid and her unbelievably cautious driving), we made it. Although there was still a layer of clouds above us, our upward view was mostly blue skies. Meanwhile below us were mounds of cotton candy clouds that trapped all the people in town. Driving down felt like reentering civilization in a sense but it was also nice to come back to the cozy, grey sweater weather that I love so much. The rest of the surprisingly eventful night consisted of sushi, a local concert at Velvet Jones, and eventually, the comfort of my own bed!

Last August, my friends and I got to go to Outside Lands, a music festival in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. For starters, this was one of the best weekends of my life. Whether I was in a mosh pit, under a shady tree, or even in a hippy yurt drinking tea while a Brazilian man serenaded me with his guitar and stories of his times as a teenager, (yes that actually happened) I was radiating pure joy. As if the incredible music, gorgeous setting, and high energy of all the concert-goers wasn’t enough, something else that didn’t fail to impress me was the FOOD. The endless rows of food vendors collectively offered every type of food you can imagine! If I’m remembering correctly, I consumed tacos, mac and cheese, and pad thai all in the same day at one point. (Not the healthiest option, but with all the walking and dancing you do throughout the day, its okay to treatcha’self)

Have I mentioned the chocolate forest yet? CHOCOLATE. FOREST. PEOPLE. No, this was not the name of one of the food trucks. There was literally a section of the park’s forest closed off and dedicated to chocolate vendors called “Choco Lands” which was basically a fairytale. I don’t know if I cried more while seeing Paul McCartney perform or after I ate a four pound peanut butter cup. Regardless, its fair to say I really enjoyed the food at Outside Lands.

Although they may be considered old fashioned, cookbooks are my go-to source for recipe inspiration. I was lucky enough to get my hands on one recently that has become my all time favorite. Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi is a perfect combination of mouth watering recipes that are also all healthy! The book’s main focus is on vibrant vegetables and how to transform them into delicious, rich meals with the help of nutritious grains. Although he is not vegetarian himself, the Israeli chef and author puts an incredibly unique twist on vegetarianism. Not only do I think the recipes are brilliant, the photography by Jonathon Lovekin is also flawless (or good enough to make me drool at least).

Some of my favorite recipes include the Avocado, quinoa, and fava bean salad, the lemon and goat cheese ravioli, the eggplant tricolore, and the broccoli and gorgonzola pie. Although they appear to be complicated at first, Ottolenghi breaks down the recipes into simple steps that anyone can handle!

Some of Ottolenghi’s other great books are Jerusalem: A Cookbook, and Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.

Make sure to check him out and let me know what you think of his books!

Thanks for reading,

Maddy

“When we slice a tomato, we want to see the tomato, we’re never going to dice it to perfect one-centimeter dices because then it doesn’t look like the fruit anymore. Both Sami and I know when we see something and it feels natural and real. Anything that strays away from that direciton is not really our cup of tea.” – Yotam Ottolenghi; The Huffington Post

Similarly to most teenage girls, some of my favorite things to do in my limited free time are

1. eat (duh)

2. listen to music

3. be inspired

This past weekend I was able to do all three of these things at the same time! As you may have seen from my previous post, I spent the four day weekend bundled up in my family’s cuddly and cozy Colorado condo. This was a great chance for me to kick back and relax after a fast paced week of school.

It was also an excellent opportunity to catch up on some of my favorite magazines, my tumblr, and my pinterest, all of which I seem to rarely have time for these days. I was so excited to make some time dedicated to these things, as they are primarily where I find inspiration for my blog posts. (For the food part, I made an arugula and spinach salad with avocado, goat cheese, and pomegranate seeds and washed it all down with a steamy, spicy chai latte.)

If you don’t have a pinterest or a tumblr, I would strongly suggest trying them out! Tumblr is for those who like to keep things simple. Your tumblr is basically just a compilation of photos, songs, and links that you selectively “reblog” from a feed. The material on your feed is what is being reblogged by people you follow.

Pinterest on the other hand is a little bit more complex. The basic structure of pinterest is the same as tumblr where you have a feed of photos that you “re-pin” based off of who you follow. However, with Pinterest you are able to re-pin that photo into a specific category or “board” that you create. You are able to create as many boards as you want and can name them whatever you want. Another cool thing about Pinterest is the photos you re-pin have links to their sources. This means if you come across a picture of food that makes you drool, you can click on the source link and it will take you to the website it was originally posted on, which usually contains its recipe!

Here is an example of what a tumblr looks like: (this is screenshot of one page of mine)

And here is what Pinterest looks like:

view of an individual board:

What I love about Tumblr and Pinterest is the ability the two sites have to constantly educate, entertain, and inspire others. It’s like creating your personalized, perfect world through a series of images and then living in it virtually!

Thanks for reading and make sure to follow my Pinterst/comment and let me know what inspires you!